[maceurt]

I am not big on cryptocurrency. Look how the price of these "currencies" fluctuate like crazy, because people buy and treat it like an investment. What is the actual current practical utility of cryptocurrency except for buying/selling illegal things online? People are so horny to get in on the next computer/iphone/etc that they forget that new ideas can fail.

[solosoyokaze]

There is a ton of utility in crypto. Here's one scenario I've never seen discussed but is absolutely real:

Imagine you're an abused spouse or child who needs money to escape their situation. Opening up a bank account isn't an option for a lot of people, but anyone can instantly open a crypto "account" and start stashing a nest egg away from the prying eyes of their oppressors. Crypto is the only option for this, and I've seen it successfully used like this multiple times.

The existing banking system favors those in power and those in good standing in the existing systems. If you're underage or financially dependent on an abuse spouse, it's a lot more obvious why you might want a way to store and transact money outside of that system.

[thehappypm]

This scenario is hard to imagine being worth a trillion dollars.

[solosoyokaze]

Think of it this way. How many people on earth can't easily get a bank account (people under the age of 18 included)? It's a huge number that suggests massive scale in that use-case alone.

[hanniabu]

What about wealthy individuals that want to divest some of their wealth from the influence of nation states. When a country struggles that has direct impact on the currency and we're seeing that even in the US as the money supply increased 22% last year and will be up to 40% with the recent stimulus. This also isn't just and issue with the US. I think it was Belgium (?) that recently reported negative interest rates. Countries have also started divesting away from USD in their reserves since Trump was president. So this is a real concern that people/governments have that this offers a solution to.

BTW gold doesn't solve this because when you buy it it's being held by someone else, whom is tied to the country it resides in, and you're back to square one. Even if you were to buy it physically and keep it in your own safe you're still stuck with the same problems because it's not portable. Bitcoin is portable.

[nmfisher]

Where is this nest egg coming from?

[solosoyokaze]

Friends, supporters, paid work... an increasing number of sources as more and more crypto infrastructure comes online.

[nemo44x]

A store of value protected from (and even a beneficiary of) government mismanagement, central bank mismanagement, corporate mismanagement, etc.

Because we are forced to generally keep our wealth in things susceptible to political influence it’s nice to have a place to store value away from that.

My homes value can be wrecked by a variety of government or central bank policies. Same with my equities and bonds. So having a part of your wealth in BTC is frugal as a protection from these things. It is outside the scope of these influences.

[maceurt]

> A store of value protected from (and even a beneficiary of) government mismanagement, central bank mismanagement, corporate mismanagement, etc.

Precious Gold/ Silver is way more adverse to risk than crypto and actually exists as a physical good.

> My homes value can be wrecked by a variety of government or central bank policies.

Crypto can be affected by those things also. I see the utility in certain aspects, but I don't understand the gold rush when there a lot better decentralized currencies.

[nemo44x]

Gold can be confiscated and actually has been in the past. Also, it's easy to lose. I personally feel gold has less value than a globally distributed proof of work and value store. Saying that, at what point did I say you should buy gold instead? By all means, hold both BTC and precious metals as a part of a well diversified portfolio.

Maybe there are better decentralized currencies (that's a matter of opinion) but there were better operating systems than Windows. It's about mindshare.

Honestly, just look at BTC's performance over the last 10 years. It has been the #1 asset class by far.

[maceurt]

BTC can be confiscated too, you don't think Government can take hard drives or get access to cloud data storage.

[hanniabu]

Gold is not portable. Bitcoin has portability. You can store billions of dollars on a piece of paper in your pocket.

[zoover2020]

What if my government bans Bitcoin? Wouldn't that ruin the whole picture? It feels like an unrelagated market, waiting to be regulated

[Acrobatic_Road]

they can pass a law banning bitcoin; they can also ban the tides from coming in.

[radicalriddler]

Don't people buy fiat currency as investments? People speculate in the FX markets all the time. How is this any different, rather than it's newer and thus more volatile due to not having found it's place.